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About 1 in 4 American newspapers did layoffs in 2018 as they continued to grapple with declining revenue amid the rise of online news, smartphones and social media.

A new report by the Pew Research Center found that midsize newspapers were most likely to cut jobs last year.

But digital news outlets aren't immune either. About 1 in 7 digital outlets also did layoffs.

Taken together, the results illustrate how the press is staggering as it continues its quest for financial sustainability in the digital age.

"Newspapers are continuing to be pummeled by layoffs," said Elizabeth Grieco, senior writer and editor at the Pew Research Center and author of a statistical analysis on the study.

Faced with the loss of ad dollars to companies like Google and Facebook, many news companies have been gasping for air. Newspapers lost about 57% of their advertising and circulation revenue and about 49% of their weekday print circulation from 2000 to 2018, according to the Pew Research Center.

Newspaper front pages from around the nation are on display at the Newseum Saturday, March 23, 2019, in Washington. Special counsel Robert Mueller closed his long and contentious Russia investigation with no new charges, ending the probe that has cast a dark shadow over Donald Trump's presidency.(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)

The Pew study, which examined newspapers with Sunday circulation of at least 50,000, found that 27% of newspapers did layoffs in 2018. That was down from 32% in 2017.

But places with multiple rounds of job cuts increased. Of the newspapers that experienced layoffs, 31% did so at least twice in 2018, compared with 17% in 2017, Pew reported. And of the places where Pew was able to determine how many jobs were cut, 62% laid off more than 10 employees in 2018, compared with 42% in 2017.

About 1 in 10 newspapers tracked by Pew in this study had layoffs in both 2017 and 2018.

"In other words, the papers that experienced staff losses in 2018 were for the most part different from those that did in 2017, widening the span of outlets with depleted staff," Pew reported.

Among newspapers with a circulation of 100,000 to 249,999, 35% did layoffs, while 29% of newspapers with at least 250,000 did the same.

Pew relied upon public reports to gather its data, which suggests there may have been more cuts.